17mc95-AL-2013_Nichelino, Stupinigi Hunting Lodge, Fan, inv. 538

Facilitated description: 
 

The fan is a piece of furniture used to hang candles on the wall.
The fan is painted wood and doraot and represents a deer head between flowers and leaves.
Mario Monticelli and Giuseppe Marocco built the fan between 1731 and 1739.
The fan together with 35 other fans is kept in the central hall of the hunting lodge of Stupinigi.
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored all the fans of the Salone in 2013.
The restorers cleaned the fan from dust with brushes and a small apirator.
They placed the fan in the anoxic chamber, an oxygen-free chamber that serves to eliminate wood-eating insects.
They eliminated the electric lighting system with fake candles because it was ruined and no longer safe.
They reinforced the candlestick arms with glue.
They filled the missing wooden parts and rebuilt some pieces.
year filled the lacks of gilding and color with watercolors and colored pencils.
Eventually they painted the fan to protect it from the sun's rays and dust and put a product against wood-eating insects.

 

 

Abstract of the intervention: 

 

Restoration

The restoration began with a dusting with soft bristle brushes and vacuum cleaner to remove dust deposits and then continued with disinfestation in the anoxic chamber for a period of three weeks.
All the fans of the Central Salon were equipped with an electrification system with fake spark plugs, which the Works Department decided to remove since it was very damaged and no longer suitable for the safety systems of the new set-up.
Differentiated cleanings were then carried out: soft tires and pencil tires have been used to achieve even very narrow and deep carvings; the gilding was chemically cleaned, while wishab rubbers were used for the back of the fans.
The arms of the candlesticks with stability problems have been dismantled and cleaned from the traces of old glues and mastics and reattached to the support. Once the glue has dried, a wooden pin has been inserted to make the structure more solid without having to apply brackets. The lack of material was supplemented with epoxy resin, while the reconstruction of flawed carving parts (candle holders) was done with heraldry. Plaster and glue plastering were then performed, blunted and chromatically tuned with watercolor colors. The small abrasions on the gilding were treated with watercolour colours, while on the colour scheme coloured pencils were used to lower the tone of the stains and gores and make the aesthetic appearance of the pictorial film more homogeneous.
Finally, on the back of the fans the original attachments have been maintained, an anti-moth solution has been laid and a final painting has been carried out.